Stop 45: Home again!

We got an early Sunday morning start and made it across a traffic free Los Angeles. We were home by 9:30 AM and immediately launched into unpacking and a thorough cleaning of the trailer, inside and out.

With the temperatures in the high 90's and very high, monsoonal humidity, cleanup could have been more pleasant but we got it done. Baby is now back in her storage slip.

It's always interesting returning home after a 4 month absence. Things fail that never fail otherwise. This time, we came home to phones that no longer worked and smoke alarms that were beeping like crazy. I bought new phones and replaced all of the smoke detector batteries only to find that, this morning, the Keurig coffee maker no longer worked. It must have just needed to be exposed to water for a while. By the time that I made a run to Home Depot for a new power washer hose (not trip related - it was leaking before we left), it was working fine (at least we didn't have to replace that).

The pump for the waterfall on the back hill freezes up whenever it sits too long (I'll be digging it up and opening it up to free up the rotor). The front fountain was also frozen (some sort of slug had taken up residence in the line - I used my air compressor to blow it out like a cork).

The ice in the ice maker is always kind of interesting. You wouldn't think that ice could dry out but I'd swear that that's what happens. The result is a solid matrix of scrawny ice cubes. The whole mess must be broken out and the bin must be soaked in hot water before new ice can be generated.

And then there's the ants. Last year was much worse. This year, I sprayed before we left but we're still battling ants. It looks like they're recent arrivals (they haven't moved in like last year).

We have very healthy weeds. We'll be working on those for a while. One piece of good news. Despite our best efforts, our lawn has always had huge brown spots by this time of year. While we were away, we allowed our gardener to replace our sprinkler heads and change the settings on the sprinkler timer. Our lawn looks wonderful (which is a little bit embarrassing in the middle of one of California's biggest droughts).

We experienced the same sorts of things last year. The water heater decided that that was a good time to start leaking gas. Major pieces of our almost new GE microwave decided to start falling off.

Last summer, we forwarded our mail to Briar's for the first half of our trip and then to Grant's for the second half. The first part went great but the 6 weeks of mail that should have gone to Grant's must have fallen into a black hole - we never did see it.

This time, we did a temporary change of address to Briar's house. The USPS told us to submit a cancellation form 2 weeks before returning home (the form takes 10 days to process). We submitted the form 3 week ago and returned home to find no mail in our mailbox. I was down at the PO today. They now say that the form takes 15 work days to process. The good news is that we got mail today.

That's it for this year.

Final stats:

• 114 nights on the road
• 44 stops
• 11,214.6 miles covered (6,928.6 towing the trailer)
• 9 states visited (3 that we missed last year)

-JC-

Stop 44: Simi Valley, CA (Our final stop!)

We stayed at this regional park campground last year and found it to be very peaceful. The obvious places to stay would have been down at the beach but, when we looked at them, we found that the vast majority of the sites are first come, first serve. The few sites that can be reserved are booked many months in advance.

This park gets very hot in the day time (high 90s) but that's when we are off visiting Grant, Melissa and the kids. In the evenings, it cools off wonderfully and it's a joy to just sit outside and watch the stars and animals (rabbits and coyotes - usually not at the same time unless one wants to be the other's dinner).

The park is quiet and unbelievably empty.

There are about 20 sites. The bulletin board lists the reservations for this week (5) and next (3). The host is only there in the evenings so there are no drop-ins.

Our trailer in the empty campground.

Our first full day: Watching Colton and Riley while Grant and Melissa are at work

We watched Colton and Riley for 17 days at the end of March, immediately prior to starting out on our trip. We saw them again at the end of April when we swung by to attend Riley's 1st birthday party. Riley is changing so fast that she's suddenly gone from being a baby to being a small person. Walking makes a lot of difference but she's also become quite a character.

We had a pretty quiet day (naps and mealtimes are a little bit limiting). While Riley took her morning nap, Colton and I managed to make it over to the playground and then to McDonalds for some takeout. Colton made immediate friends with a couple of boys at the playground (they shared their trucks with him - friends for life) so it was very hard to pull him away.

Riley is crazy about her sunglasses ...

... Even when she doesn't quite get them straight.

Happy boy.

Grant and Melissa both came home from work a bit early and we all went out to dinner at a great place that serves Belgian style food and beer.

Riley, on the way to dinner.

She had a great time, flirting with strangers and saying goodbye to just about everyone.

Then we headed back to our campground for another quiet evening.

Our second full day: More visiting.

Colton and Riley had been invited to the birthday party of 2 of their friends and, we were apparently also invited. That, a trip out to the Camarillo Outlets and just visiting with Grant, Melissa and the grand kids filled the day. Not exciting but we enjoyed it.

I have to mention Colton and Riley's goodbyes to us as we left both evenings. Colton's getting big so it's not surprising that he get's up on the couch to wave and yell "Bye Grandma and Grandpa" out the window. Riley has joined in big time. She crowds him out, and jumps up and down while she yells at the top of her lungs. She yells "Bye!", "Bye Grandma!" and long sentences that might mean something to her. Throughout all of this, she's waving and blowing kisses

Next stop, Home!

-JC-

Stop 43: Pismo Beach / Avila Beach, CA

Our RV park is located right between the 2 towns so it's close to both without being in either. We stayed here last year and were able to reserve the only pull-through site in the place. This year, it wasn't available.

The back-in sites are as difficult to get into as we have ever seen. Fortunately Kristen thought to ask about pulling into our site through the back-in site that is behind us. The woman said that she didn't think that they'd arrived yet and that, if they weren't there, we could pull right through.

Our timing was perfect, we pulled through the site behind us just seconds before its' owners showed up. I'd had to move their table so that we could get close to our utilities. I had to jump out and immediately move it back so that they could get close to their's.

Our first full day: Avila Beach (and Pismo for dinner)

We've visited Pismo many times but only managed to get to Avila on our past couple of visits. It's a nice little town and is much less tacky than Pismo. On our first visit, we found a parking place but all of the restaurants (all 2 of them) were full. On our next visit, we never even found a parking place. This time, we found a parking place, got into a restaurant and, to top things off, it was a beautiful day.

The pier on the main beach. Notice that there is a second pier in the background that is owned by one of the oil companies.

Looking down the coast towards Pismo.

Looking back at the town from the pier.

Looking back at the town from the other side of the pier.

I took this picture from a landing that is under the end of the pier. Large boats moor in the bay and dingy over to this landing.

Some sort of junior lifeguard training was in progress.

More junior lifeguard training (they were really working them).

Running made a nice change of pace for the junior lifeguards.

Later, we headed down to an old favorite, Steamers Restaurant in Pismo, and had an excellent seafood dinner.

The view from our table. The whale count here can't compare to Moss Landing but we saw several breeches as we dined.

We have a funny story - stop here if you don't enjoy sewer cleaning stories. In our travels, we have collected several gadgets that we use to keep our black and grey water tanks clean. We have a device that we use to back-flush the black water tank nearly every time that we empty it. Another device that we don't use nearly as often is a spray wand that goes down the toilet to clean the pipe that connects the toilet to the tank (it can get pretty gross).

The last couple of times that I have used it, it's been like taking a shower and the bathroom has gotten pretty wet (the water wasn't coming from the business end - that would have been really gross - but from somewhere in the vicinity of the handle). It was kind of difficult to assess the problem while the bathroom and I were getting drenched.

Prior to our trip to Avila, I hooked it up, stuck the end in a bucket and turned on the water. The handle, which is supposed to be solid plastic, had somehow developed hundreds of tiny pinholes and was spraying in every direction. It went directly into the dumpster and we made a trip to the local RV supply store to buy the new, improved model. So far, so good.

After we returned to the trailer from Avila, it was time to try the device out. It worked splendidly. The only issue that I had was that I was using a flashlight to monitor my work and it slipped from my hand and fell into the tank. Fortunately, we have tremendous water pressure here. Kristen directed the hose down the toilet while I monitored the clean out (we have a clear section so we can see how clean things are running). Eventually, the flashlight rattled on by and I stopped the water.

Just out of curiosity, I checked the line and found that the flashlight had stopped just short of the sewer. I shook it out and, believe it or not, it was still on. For some reason, Kristen didn't want it any more so I hauled it over to the trash and then washed my hands again and again and again.

Our second full day: Pismo Beach and an afternoon on the beach at Avila

Another beautiful day. We headed over to Pismo early enough to get a good parking place. Our morning walk took us out to the end of the pier and to the far end of the beach and back

The Pismo Pier.

North along the beach. Our walk took us to the far end and back.

South along the beach. Most of the beach down this way is open to off-roading.

Pismo has Junior Lifeguards too.

From the end of the pier, looking North towards Avila Beach.

From the end of the pier, looking back at the town.

Pismo Pier from up the beach.

After lunch back at the trailer we popped over to Avila Beach and sat on the beach for a couple of hours. It was very pleasant and I even went in for a swim. The ocean couldn't have been calmer but the lifeguard stand was still flying a red flag. It seems that a shark had been sighted somewhere along the coast. It didn't seem to be keeping anyone out of the water.
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Tomorrow, we're off to Simi Valley and a visit with Grant, Melissa and the kids.

-JC-

Stop 42: Moss Landing, CA

We've had several instances on our trip where places that we had planned on seeing were closed. They were either closed on the day that we were there or they were not yet open for the season. Moss Landing has been just the opposite.

According to the stories on the news, an abundance of food close to shore has the grey and blue whales swarming close to shore at Moss Landing. The KOA that we are staying in has arranged a special $25 per person whale watching tour for Sunday morning. The park is right at the marina and it's about a 2 minute walk to the dock. Of course we signed up.

This is the boat that we'll be going out on.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Research Institute is located in Moss Landing. This is the behind the scenes part of the aquarium that is never open to the public. Make that almost never. Once a year, they put everything on display for a few hours. We learned shortly after checking in that most of our fellow campers are here specifically for the open house on Saturday afternoon.

We've stayed in this park before and find it very pleasant. We can see the boats in the Marina from our trailer. At night, we hear the foghorns, gulls and sea lions.

Our first full day: The MBARI open house

Our Saturday morning walk took us over the bridge to the beach. The news reports weren't lying - there are a lot of whales out there.

The MBARI facility (from the bridge).

Moss Landing's trademark power plant. The stacks are clearly visible when you look across te bay from Monterey. Even when the coast appears to be socked in, these stacks often rise above the fog.

I made numerous attempts to get a picture of a whale. This is the only shot that actually caught one.

After lunch at Phil's Fish House (one of Moss Landing's major attractions) it was time to hit the MBARI open house. It was very interesting and all of the scientists that we talked to seemed to be very excited to be able to talk about their jobs.

Remote Operaed Vehicles (ROVs) were on display all over the place.

Another ROV

The Rachel Carson is one of the larger vessels that deploys the ROVs.

The Western Flyer is the MBARI's largest vessle. The 2 sides of the catamaran ride on blades that are attached to large pontoons that ride well below the surface roughness. This apparently creates a very stable platform for deploying ROV's.

Another ROV. The man at the left is demonstrating the fine motor control that he has of the arm.

We saw a lot of these to. They are similar to the one that is being used to search the Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysian Airways jet. 

The largest of the ROV's

This was one of the MBARI's smaller vessels. The guy who programs the ROVs was saying that he uses this one when he needs to get a code change installed quickly. He races out to the site of the ROV, lowers a wifi modem into the water and transmits his code changes.

Our second full day: Whale watching

What a beautiful morning for whale watching! We dressed warmly as we expected it to be a bit chilly out on Monterey Bay at 7:30 AM. I checked online and, at 6:30 AM, it was already 65°. It only got warmer from there and we were soon shedding layers.

We saw many (possible hundreds of) humpbacks. The sea lions were even more abundant and there were a lot of dolphins and sea otters. This was easily, our most successful whale watching trip ever.

Looking at the harbor while we waited to board. As you can see, the water was like glass and the ocean wasn't much different.

Looking back at the harbor as we entered the passage between the jetties.

3 (?) whales.

Dolphins.

A couple of whales with sea lions lower right.

Kayaking looked kind of thrilling.

A spout and a tail.

The whales and sea lions were after sardines. We'd see rough water that indicated the rise of a school of sardines. Next, the sea lions would move in. Finally, the whales went nuts.

After doing some marketing and having lunch at the trailer, we headed to Monterey. It's very likely that we've managed to avoid Monterey on the weekend in recent years but, on this beautiful Sunday, Monterey was as crowded as we've ever seen it.

We parked in the lot at Fishermans' Wharf and walked the shoreline down toward Cannery Row. We stopped in at Kristen's favorite antiques mall and, for the first time in years, found an addition to her collection of 16" Delft platters. We see them from time to time but we rarely find a design that isn't among the 12-15 that she already owns.

Walking along the shoreline, we enjoyed these harbor seals. Every rock that was near or slightly above the surface seemed to have a harbor seal resting on it.

I mentioned earlier that the Moss Landing stacks were visible from Monterey. They are about 1/4 way over from the right side of this picture.

After walking back to Fishermans' Wharf, we enjoyed an early seafood dinner and then battled our way through the traffic back to our trailer.

Once there, we Skyped with Grant, Colton and Riley and saw Riley demonstrate her new walking skills. Then we sat outside for a while and were visited by the campground cat (the hosts cat but the host was away so the cat was lonely).

Finally, we took our beach chairs over to the beach and watched the whales for a long while. Again, it's amazing how many whales are out there.

Next stop, Avila Beach.

-JC-